UK-BUILT POLLUTION MONITORING SATELLITE READY FOR LAUNCH - Last year, the European Space Agency launched the Trace Gas Orbiter to Mars. It is designed to look for methane – a key tracer of life – to determine if Martian microbes are present on the red planet. Now, ESA is preparing to launch another spacecraft to look at methane on another planet: our own. The UK-built Sentinel-5P, a pollution monitoring satellite, is ready to begin its journey from Airbus Defence and Space, Stevenage, to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, where it will lift off in late September/early October.   More
(Source: The Guardian - Jul 21)

SIERRA NEVADA’S DREAM CHASER ON THE MOVE IN CALIFORNIA - An atmospheric test model of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft, a cargo carrier for the International Space Station that will take off on top of an Atlas 5 rocket and land on a runway, is undergoing braking and steering checks in California ahead of a flight test later this year, the company said Monday. The full-scale Dream Chaser is pulled behind a tow vehicle for the ground tests now underway, reaching speeds fast enough to gauge the craft’s braking performance and guidance, navigation and control systems.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 20)

SPACEX CHIEF SAYS 1ST LAUNCH OF BIG NEW ROCKET WILL BE RISKY - SpaceX's chief said Wednesday that the first launch of its big new rocket is risky and stands "a real good chance" of failure. Founder Elon Musk told a space station research conference Wednesday that he wants to set realistic expectations for the flight later this year from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon Heavy will have three boosters instead of one, and 27 engines instead of nine, all of which must ignite simultaneously. No one will be aboard the initial flights. When it comes time to add people, Musk said, "no question, whoever's on the first flight, brave." SpaceX plans to fly two paying customers to the moon late next year, using a Falcon Heavy.   More
(Source: ABC News - Jul 20)

THIS NEW SATELLITE IS THE BRIGHTEST IN THE SKY - If you look up tonight, you might see a new light in the sky. The new Russian satellite Mayak—meaning "lighthouse"—was launched into orbit on Friday. Mayak wears a reflective surface that makes it the second brightest object in the night sky, after the moon. Mayak is a small cubesat, only measuring a few inches across. It contains a large reflective membrane that was stretched out in the shape of a pyramid almost 10 feet on each side. This pyramid catches the sunlight and sends it toward Earth, making the Mayak one of the brightest objects in orbit.   More
(Source: Popular Mechanics - Jul 19)

HISTORY AND TIMELINE OF THE ISS - The International Space Station took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble. It is the result of unprecedented scientific and engineering collaboration among five space agencies representing 15 countries. The space station is approximately the size of a football field: a 460-ton, permanently crewed platform orbiting 240 miles above Earth. It is about four times as large as the Russian space station Mir and five times as large as the U.S. Skylab. The idea of a space station was once science fiction, existing only in the imagination until it became clear in the 1940s that construction of such a structure might be attainable by our nation. As the Space Age began in the 1950s, designs of “space planes” and stations dominated popular media.    More
(Source: CASIS - Jul 19)

RUSSIA LAUNCHES NON-TERRIFYING SATELLITE THAT FOCUSES SUN'S SOLAR RAYS ONTO EARTH - Skywatchers are going to see a new light in the heavens this week after the successful launch of the Russian satellite Mayak this past weekend. Mayak, the Russian word for "beacon," is a standard tiny CubeSat probe. It will deploy 170 square feet (16 square metres) of reflective Mylar material in a pyramid shape that will reflect the Sun's light as it tumbles through its orbit. The satellite will be brighter in the sky than the International Space Station (ISS) and may even appear brighter than Venus or Jupiter. Basically, a sorta crap version of the Icarus space laser in James Bond low-point Die Another Day.   More
(Source: The Register - Jul 18)

NASA COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE DAMAGED 3 WEEKS BEFORE LAUNCH - NASA’s newest, slickest communications satellite has been damaged, just three weeks before its planned August launch. NASA said Monday that one of the antennas on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, or TDRS-M was damaged last Friday. The accident occurred inside a payload processing building near Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the satellite was being packed for launch.   More
(Source: WMFE - Jul 18)

MEET THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION’S ADORABLE CAMERA DRONE - Astronauts on board the International Space Station have a new robotic companion to play around with. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released the first images shot by the "Int-Ball," a spherical camera that floats around alongside the rest of the crew. With its monochrome paint job and blue, circular eyes, it looks a little like Wall-E's Eve — or at least her head, in some kind of prototype form. Notably, the Int-Ball can move around autonomously or be controlled by operators back on Earth. The images are transferred in near real-time allowing JAXA staff to quickly evaluate problems and offer possible solutions to ISS residents.   More
(Source: Engadget - Jul 18)

COMPANY TO TEST SPACE-DEBRIS-RETRIEVAL SATELLITE IN 2019, AIM TO COMMERCIALIZE BY 2020 - A Singapore-based venture company aspiring to enter the space business unveiled a life-sized model of a satellite that would retrieve space debris, with which the company plans to conduct a test run in orbit in 2019 and to make commercially viable by 2020. "Space is filled with trash, and if things continue as they have, space exploration will no longer be sustainable. There definitely is demand (for the craft)," Mitsunobu Okada, the 44-year-old founder and CEO of Astroscale, said. Okada also revealed that his company has just accepted a 2.8 billion yen (about $2 million) investment from ANA Holdings Co. and other investors.    More
(Source: The Mainichi - Jul 16)

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